Eckhard Bick - VISL

4.5.5 Violating the uniqueness principle:
Reflexive impersonality structures
The word class ambiguity of the Portuguese word form "se", between subordinating
conjunction on the one hand, and personal pronoun on the other, is one of the hardest
tasks the morphological disambiguation grammar has to confront, involving many rules
specifically written for this word form only. To make things worse, the ambiguity is
interdependent with a characteristic ambiguity in its corresponding verb - that between
the infinitive and finite (future subjunctive) readings 200 , of which the first matches the
pronoun reading, and the second, the conjunction reading of "se". And for the former,
the woes of ambiguity even continue on the syntactico-functional level.
Traditionally, the pronoun "se" is regarded as reflexive, surface-syntactically
implying a direct object reading. In terms of valency, reflexivity can - for one - simply
match the syntactic pattern of the corresponding monotransitive usage, as in English
"He hates himself" ('Se detesta'), or - with a plural verb form - as in the reciprocal "They
love each other" ('Se amam'), where Portuguese can use the reflexive instead of the
literal um ao outro. In these cases, both subject and object receive "real" thematic roles:
The subject of such sentences functions as agent, and the direct object as patient. Like
German and Danish, but unlike English, Portuguese can, however, "integrate" the
reflexive pronoun into the verbal lexeme to such a degree that no clear thematic
function can be assigned to it (so-called pronominal verbs). This is readily apparent
where the subject of the pronominal verb form lacks the agent-feature of the
monotransitive form, and instead displays the thematic role of patient itself, not leaving
to the reflexive object any meaningful lower function along the hierarchy of thematic
roles. In the cline below, (2a-b) are examples of analytic reflexives with "real" objects
(testable by the addition a si mesmo ['himself'] 201 ), and (2c-e) are process or event
reflexives where the object is void of thematic function. In the zero-subject construction
(2f), finally, neither subject nor direct object receive thematic roles, and the second,
prepositional, object functions as patient (theme).
- 329 -
@SUBJ @ACC/se @PIV
(2a) mata-se ('he kills himself) AG PAT -
(2b) lava-se ('he washes [himself]) AG PAT -
(2c) habitua-se a ('he grows accustomed to') PAT ? -
(2d) torna-se ('he/it becomes') PAT ? -
(2e) passa-se ('s.th. happens') PAT ? -
(2f) trata-se de ('it is about') - ? PAT
200 The same verbal ambiguity is seen in conjunction with relatives/interrogatives, cp. 4.5.4.4.
201 Yielding: mata-se a si mesmo and lava-se a si mesmo.